Better Writer

This semester, I have truly looked at my writing process more carefully and reconsidered my techniques. For one thing, I've learned that outlining every step of the way is not necessarily the best way to let my writing freely flow together or even let my style present itself. When you start and finish your essay with outlining and making sure that the "structure" is not ruined as you are in the process of writing, you are constricting yourself to writing only one kind of paper. In this way, ideas cannot even fully develop themselves and if they do, it is incomplete and unfinished.

Furthermore, I've learned that free-writing, my favorite form of writing, can be done for the "real" academic-setting papers as well. As I've learned from Elbow, it is the way to get the brain to start brainstorming and generating ideas. On the side, I've also been reading Mike Rose's "Writer's Block: The Cognitive Dimension" and he pretty much confirms what the other theorists have been saying as well. He especially highlights the importance of knowing when to begin "editing" a paper. I have realized that I sometimes try so hard to make sure each sentence I'm writing makes sense grammatically that I can't even let myself freely write because I am unconsciously or not worried that I'm not making any sense so I try to edit way too early. All these worries of following the "right format" of writing and etc. and I am paraphrasing Rose himself, end up giving you so much writer's anxiety that ends up building an obstacle so you sit in front of the computer, wondering how to start writing, and write on your face book that you are facing the worst writer's block...

Finally, I've learned to share my writing with peer tutors to get second and third opinions after a rough draft. In fact, it is good to have tutoring sessions with "writing consultants" to talk about my writing even before starting the writing itself and get help for the pre-writing stage. After all, I keep telling all my students about this at Hostos in my class and to the students that come to the writing center at LaGuardia. And besides, to become good at something, one must be willing to take criticism, that's how he/she learns. So, now I'm ready to show my writing to other people and "take" criticisms about my writing. I'm ready to become a better writer.

Holidays & Worries

It is that time of the year again. Right around the time when it's thanksgiving holiday and I'm flooded with papers! Yup it happens every year! It's almost like tradition. Actually, last year it didn't happen. Last year, I was a free bird. Last year I took one semester off from school (transitioning between undergraduate and graduate school mostly). Somehow, I feel like I am so much more now, so much more alive, now that I am back in school. It is when I am buried under paper assignments and having more and more panic attacks due to deadlines and its pressure... It's almost done now. Only two weeks or so left and then I can officially take a breath from school and work all together....at least until January again.

Another thing I'm absolutely worried about is my students' CATW exam day approaching. They are taking it on Dec. 10th! That is not very far away! Oh I hate this part when I can't even be the one to judge them to give them the green light to say GO you passed even! I just have to let them take the step to the testing office and the world outside our classroom and all that we've been doing thus far. Then after a week, I will be "given" their scores along with my lead teacher. Honestly, I don't know which one to be more worried and nervous about, my school workload or my students passing the CATW?

Talking about Writing & Revising

As you all may know, I currently work in the writing center at LaGuardia Community College and have been there for about 3 years or so. My daily job is to meet students and talk to them about their papers and eventually tutor them to become better writers. Well, recently, I've been told by a professor that I need to start showing my own paper to peer tutors. It is true, indeed, that I am sometimes very aware of sharing my paper. I think it goes back to my past with my older sister and father who whenever they "looked at" my paper, started to criticize it so much and start changing around the sentences so much that I really felt like it wasn't my voice anymore. As a writing center tutor, it is always my responsibility to be careful not to steal someone's voice when helping them out with a paper.

So now this is my goal. I'd like to really start showing my written work to peer tutors so that I can get that second and third opinion for my writings.

Students' Improvements

It is now the 18th of November and in about 20 days (Dec. 10th), my students will be taking the CATW exam. Although I am absolutely nervous and anxious for them, I must admit that every single one of my students have improved in their writing in one way or another. I'm comparing them with the first CATW they took in class and the first writings they used to hand in to us. Both my lead teacher and I have agreed that even if they don't pass this stupid test, they all have improved and have become better writers and readers. This is one thing that I am truly proud of with my students.

I do hope they all pass the test only because I don't want them to become discouraged or think in any way that this class was a "waste of their time" because as I mentioned, they have indeed improved. Less than 20 days. Lord help us!

Lives on the Boundary...

It's been about three months now since I started co-teaching at Hostos Community College. I've been learning a lot as I've been going about teaching, about writing, about the system, and about my students. One thing I've been noticing is that these are the very people that Mike Rose wrote a book on, the lives on the boundary. The ones who have been failing reading and writing, the ones who are misunderstood, the ones who are dedicated to learning but are often misrepresented by the "system."

There is one boy in my afternoon class, let's call him "George". For some reason, I feel like he thinks he's still in high school. The way he acts as a student and as a classmate. He just doesn't take responsibility. He sits in class (if he ever makes it on time) and after numerous "warnings" by the CUNY Start director and the lead teacher, he still manages to tease and bully a student in our class who by the way has a learning disability. He just continues to do half-a**ed jobs on the homeworks and CATW papers. In fact, the most recent CATW I read from him looked exactly like what he wrote when we first took the test from the class as an assessment, not at all following the outline we have provided for the class, no improvement basically!

So my lead teacher has decided to kick him out of the program officially. He has already had so many warnings and has failed to make any progress in anything. Though at first I was very upset with her decision trying to say that isn't he exactly one of those "lives on the boundary"? And shouldn't we, as compassionate teachers, be willing to work hard to hear him out? Maybe he just comes from a background that you and I can't understand. But, after further investigation and much thought and reflection on my part, I realized that perhaps this must be in his best interest. The truth is, we've already been giving a lot of chances to him and he hasn't made much progress at all no matter how much we tried to reason with him. The problem now is not only him but the fact that he ruins the dynamic of the class by distracting others and teasing a classmate as I mentioned before. Perhaps after he leaves this program, he will learn more to appreciate the chances that are given to him!

Taking Control of Tutoring Sessions

Today, I found a sheet in my mailbox at Lagcc writing center that includes some good writing/grammar practicing websites in it that we can give to our tutees. So here they are, if any of you would like to give it to your students:
1. CUNY Write Site: http://www.writesite.cuny.edu/
2. Guide to Grammar & Writing: www.grammar.ccccommnet.edu/grammar
3. Grammar Bytes: www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm
4. Big Dog's Grammar: www.aliscot.com/bigdog
5. English Page: http://www.englishpage.com/

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On another note, I've recently been trying to implement my tutoring sessions based on what I've been learning at my Writing Center Theory and Practice class. One thing I've realized about tutoring as I've tried the different techniques, which also applies to teaching, is the ability to take risks and really take control of a tutoring session. At times, when I see a student who comes in with a B+ and wants to work for an A, I immediately feel like ''ok, what am I supposed to help him with. He obviously has the main points of the essay. What can I really help him with to become a better writer, and not just edit his paper?" However, recently I've just been taking control of the situation and stepping out of the "cubicle" (the place where we work with students) and letting them work on a specific task. At first, I used to think "oh no, the student might feel like I'm not providing the help I should or perhaps my supervisor will think I'm just being lazy". But then I see that my supervisor says nothing and my students actually benefit a lot more. This really reminds me of our class a couple of days ago with professor Gleason when she said: "sometimes 'less' is more."

Merely a poem, just playing with words. And colors.

**This poem was inspired by the sceneries I passed by on my way to NY today in the bus. So so beautiful. I truly love Autumn.**

"Feast of Colours"

Green is for life

Though love is set in strife

Within a sip of wine,

there's cerise, perfect to dine.

With a red that is on fire

A yellow that's dire

A sun that is bright

Orange in its light

Fathom this image

Imagine the mirage

Close your eyes to destiny

But hold your heart and be free

This city is great in its Autumn

Great in its colours, never common

Let the leaves brilliantly fall

Breathe in the cold air this Fall

Maroon takes its own place

Relax, but try and win this race

Pace in the distance

Run right into resistance

Let it rain

Smile and take the pain

Let the wind guide you

Pause. And now you know what to do.

Fall Conference Reflection

So last week I posted a blog about going to a meeting with all of my colleagues at Hostos Community College to "collaboratively learn" as teachers. Well, this meeting or shall I call it (7-hour) conference, truly exceeded my expectations.

Although it was very long, it was never boring. Firstly, teachers and administration staff came to the conference from all CUNY Start programs from BMCC and HCC, all CTI programs from LaGCC and KCC, and CTP from Lehman. It was great to see and socialize or as my advisor professor Gleason always says, to "network". I actually also got to see an old classmate who came as the academic advisor from BMCC. As I went around and met new people, I realized just how small of a world CUNY really is. My job at lagcc writing center connected to the new test talk to the internship I did last summer at the CLEP GED bridge program to my co-teaching job at Hostos to my Language and Literacy program at ccny to that professor whose class I took last semester to the conference.

I won't go over each detail of the conference, but I must highlight the section where all the Reading/Writing teachers gathered together in one room and went over the new CATW tests. This was a true collaborative learning experience where we went over different students' sample essays and tried to figure out what score each one would get. In each case, we brought in our own previous knowledge of the test and what we have been told from here and there and our own knowledge of writing and tried to learn together. I truly benefitted from this portion of the conference as I did with other parts as well. Another section of the conference was an honored guest who came to speak to us about the issues with learning disability students at CUNY and specifically in the said CLEP programs and to what they are privileged and whatnot. As my lead teacher and I have been realizing there are a few students in our classes who have learning disabilities, this was a great eye-opener.

One other thing I noticed when I was at the conference was the realization that I was the youngest member there. This both scared me and made me proud of myself. The fact that I have so much to learn still from these people and the realization that I actually do have something to offer as a "beginning" teacher. So far, the experiences have been very gratifying for me. I hope to genuinely learn and grow more and more as an instructor and student in this program.

Writing Rant

This semester, I've been doing a lot of readings on how to write and it has really changed the way I think about writing. For one thing, it has made me very aware of how my writing process is just very structured and if I don't follow the "usual" steps of outlining, writing the essay based on the outline, and the revision. However, when I write, I am way too often suffering from writer's anxiety where I just keep on second-guessing everything I write and trying to 'fix' each sentence before getting to the next. I have actually recently started reading Mike Rose's "Writer's Block: A Cognitive Dimension" and it just makes me so angry that I've been trained since high school and brainwashed a bit with these rigid rules of writing. For example: "don't ever start your sentence with 'and' or 'but'" Even when I am grading my students' papers at Hostos, it just looks wrong to me when students do so. Then, I think back, where in the English grammar does it really say that? Or just this constant need to wanting to revise each and every sentence and prematurely "edit" an essay as Rose puts it. All of this especially annoys me because I like writing freely and journal writing and blogging and writing poetry. So why, I ask myself, am I so stuck on this need to write in this particular 5-paragraph structured way when it comes to academic writing which truly limits my own abilities of writing and cuts any sort of emotion that I may actually have in the subject?

I am now partly anxious about my way of writing, partly angry with the system of high schools and the way they have taught me how to write, partly insecure about my writing, and just needing to revise my writing. Somehow.

Collaborative Learning for Teachers

Today, we are having a huge meeting with all of CUNY Start teachers from Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), Hostos Community College (HCC) and also another group of teachers from another group called CTI from Kingsborough Community College (KCC) and LaGuardia Community College (LaGCC). All staff from these colleges/programs are required to attend the 7-hour meeting. We are to bring up topics from our teaching experiences along with sample student papers to discuss.

I am very excited actually to see how other teachers have been doing so far (since September) and what their outlook is on the CATW test. It really is the ultimate collaborative learning for teachers where we meet to discuss and share our ideas and move forward together as teachers.

I guess I should make another blog entry about the results and/or my reflections on it.

Teaching Adult Learners vs. High School Grads

On thursday and friday I taught my first lessons at Hostos Community College. Up until now, I was "co-teaching" and more so just "assissting" my lead teacher like giving feedback on papers to students, chipping in a comment here and there as the lead teacher taught the class, going around to check people's works as they worked individually and in collaborative groups, and giving feedback to the lead teacher on her lesson plans. However, on Thursday evening I taught a lesson for 2 hours on my own and same with Friday. My lesson was how to do an outline for the CATW.

What struck me most amazing was the comfort I felt when teaching the adult students in comparison to teaching the younger students who are mostly high school graduates. I felt like the adult class was so much more stimulated and in fact my lesson took 2 hours for that class because they asked many questions and volunteered to answer my questions while the younger class mostly just sat down and looked straight at me without acknowledging that they understand anything that I am saying. I called on a few people but it was still a bit useless. And of course, with this group, my lesson took only one hour. I did the same activities with both groups and somehow the adult students, I felt, were more interested to learn.

Thus, great pat on the back for me, nice job, you chose the right field to get an M.A. in!

Steps Needed to Teach/Learn

In these past few weeks that I have been teaching at Hostos Community College, I have learned about myself as a teacher and as a learner. One thing I realized about myself, a weak spot you may say, is my inability to break everything down for the students. This isn't true about every aspect of writing or literature but when it comes to certain topics and skills, I have found that I can be very impatient and wanting to just jump into the work itself.

Similarly, the text we read in the Intro to Teaching class from Peter Hawkes further elaborated scaffolding. He explains, one must really learn what steps students must take to be able to arrive at the same questions that great scholarly literary critics come across. Once they have reached that level, they will be able to think at the same level as you. We just started reading more fictional literature in my class at Hostos and have just begun teaching analysis of texts. In this case, I realized that I in particular, don't seem to have the necessary patience to break things down in the simplest way depending on each students' background knowledge to be able to understand the text and then move on to criticizing and analyzing it.

In this case, I really just sat back and tried to see how my lead teacher handled the situation and tried to absorb all of her techniques but also think of the theories I've read thus far to see if I can somehow connect it to this situation in particular or not. As a learner, one must take the first step first and then move on to the second and third. Likewise, as a teacher, one may begin with just "assisting" a teacher and help in any possible way and then believe that he/she can move on to the next step.

For Bookworms of CCNY & Beyond...

I just wanted to introduce a website my father discovered a couple of days ago called Alibris. I'm not sure if you've heard of it or not but it's one of those incredibly amazing priced online bookstores where you can find most books for only $0.99!! The shipping and handling differs from maybe $2 to $4 or $5 and the more books you buy the less s&h you pay! I just purchased some of Mike Rose's greatest books on literacy in addition to a couple of literature books I've been meaning to buy for a while now. So the website is: www.alibris.com

I personally used to buy books a lot when I was younger and didn't understand the value of money I guess (haha). My parents always tried to dissuade me from it and eventually as my bills became bigger throughout the years I dropped the habit. However, I sort of hate borrowing books from the library especially when I'm as busy as I am these days because in the end, I end up paying late fees. I have a horrible habit of not being able to stop myself when I'm in a room full of books (library) and take out more books than I can read in one period at a time especially when I have all my graduate class readings to cover. Thus, I end up reading only one or two of the bunch and return the other ones unused and I pay a late fee. So whether you hate borrowing books from the library for any reason like myself or love having ownership of books especially reference ones, this is the website for you!

Enjoy.

Lab 0.99 Solution...

As I previously blogged, my Labs this semester on Thursdays are horrible in the sense that the professor does not give me any particular assignments to work on with the students. To add, students are not exactly the most complying bunch and just do not care how loud they are and how they may be disturbing others, etc. In the Writing Center, there's always been this argument and complaint that how do we, as tutors, "instruct" labs? In a way, we do not have the authority to tell the students what to do in the class time and at the same time, we do. So what can we really do?

I've heard to suggestions of many tutors, some ambitious and others (mostly) pessimistic. However, I would like to try something of my own and just trust my own teaching instinct to see how things go. Since the professor never got back to me after I left a voice message on her office phone or reply to any of the notes I wrote on the attendance sheet of lab, I have decided to literally take matters into my own hands. So this is what I've come up with:

Since it is a computer lab, I will first begin by asking them to shut off the monitors (at least) of their computers. Then, take out a sheet of paper and write what you think of this lab. Some suggested questions could be: What do you expect to do while in here? What do you expect/think your responsibility as students is in this lab? What do you think/expect my responsibility is or should be as a lab instructor here? After giving them several minutes to write freely about all this, I will put them in groups of 3-4 (depending on how many students are present in the class) and share their ideas and to then come up with an agenda or set of rules to follow for this class as students, as lab instructor for me, and as the class as a whole. And then I will bring it together and write down the "rules" on the board and keep a "copy" of it on my own to then type and print for the whole class next time perhaps.

I don't know, am I being too ambitious here?

Student Conferences

Yesterday, we had student conferences from 1:30 pm to 8:30 pm with maybe 30 minutes break all-together. And wow! I have to say, I did not ever perceive just how tiring this process would be! Before, when a professor decided to hold "student conferences", it was good news to the students because that meant having to just go to meet with the professor for 10 minutes or so and sometimes having class cancelled for it. On the other hand, as a teacher, it's a lot more work. Here I was thinking "just talking to students for the whole day will be a piece of cake!" Boy, was I wrong!

I guess I did not realize when you teach, you do not talk for the entire class time and give a chance to students to speak their minds and at times give them time to work on the activities and especially in our classes, give them time to read and write while in class. However, when holding student conferences, it is like talking back to back the same comments sometimes without a break in between each conversation, and wow that is quite exhausting! By the end of the night, when meeting with our last few students, my lead teacher and I were both brain-dead! So, though I still think that student conferences are necessary to hold half-way in the semester to be able to speak to students invidivually, letting them know about their performance in the class, I am now more aware of just how demanding of a process it could be for the teacher.

Damn, being a teacher is so hard sometimes!

A Teacher's Library

The other day my (new) roommate asked if I had a good book that she can borrow so she can read on her way to work in the train since her iPod wasn't working. I got very excited to be able to share my book with someone and so I jumped up and ran to my room to get her something. Now I just recently moved to this place (less than a month ago) and since my last place was very small, I have not really brought all my books from my parents' house.

So, I ran up to my room and she followed me. I started looking at my little collection of books only to realize that I actually do not really have my good novels. As my roommate went through each book and asked me the title of one or the other and asked what it may be about, I suddenly looked from the outside and saw a library of a teacher, with books like "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Freire, "Grammar Troubleshoots", "Second Language Acquisition", feminism books by Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir. I saw a library of an educated woman.

It really made me proud, finding out how I may be viewed by someone who may just come into my room to see the books I read. Even though I have to admit, I still feel like I am not ahead of my game and there are still a lot of books about education and literacy that I have to read that I have not yet even heard of. But I guess, it's good to find something out like this for a change, that I am not as "behind my game" as I thought.

Nice job Mahla.

Great or Unrealistic Expectations?

On Wednesday September 6, my lead teacher had a conference/meeting with the director of CUNY Start and the dean of CLIP at Hostos.

Apparently the dean asked her:
"How many students in the classes do you think will pass the CATW test in December?"
"About 50-60%"
"What can we do to get that to 95-100%?"
"...Maybe some training for this new test?!"

Cross over to Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm, in the Writing Center Theory and Practice class at City College with Professor Barbara Gleason. The discussion is about the history of writing centers and how when they were first made official, the administrative was already becoming anxious and impatient that why aren't the students getting any better? How come there's no immediate improvement just yet? And they were quickly concluding that there should really be no respect for writing centers and deciding that only the really "weakest" students should make a trip there.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting down trying to decide: are these expectations by the administration great or just unrealistic? Sure, everybody would like "fast" results and they don't want to give their money (funding) unless they are guarenteed improvement. I know writing centers and teachers alike have been troubled with this dilemma for years, but I still wonder how do we get past that? How do we, as teachers, reassure the administration, that though not as quick as they are expecting, progress is being made? How do we reassure students that with time and diligent practice, they can become better writers? And most importantly, how do we reassure ourselves that it's all worth it?

Reading Strategies: Why couldn't they teach us these sooner?

I've read the assigned readings for Tuesday evening's class on 10/05. "I Read But I Don't Get It" by Cris Tovani took me back to my own history of having difficulty with reading. I, too come from a background of teachers and tutors continually telling me to "think harder" and "concentrate" more to understand/comprehend the text. Eventually, due to my own interest in books and having this need to escape from reality sometimes and finding reading to be just it, I was able to discover the common "reading strategies" that Tovani presents.

When I read the text, all I was thinking was: I wish I had a teacher like Tovani back when I was in middle and part of high school. So that I wouldn't feel "dumb" for not being able to read well and would instead just employ the "reading strategies" to get to my "destination". I need to stop quoting now and get to bed; I had two really long classes at Hostos and did a bit of medical interpreting (another job of mine) this morning and am now officially exhausted. I don't think red bull will do the trick. Sleep is what I need, at least for the next 4 hours or so.

Eng 099 Lab, Week II

One of the reasons I decided I want to go into Adult Education instead of K-12 was that I truly enjoy teaching and hate the prospect of having to first discipline the kids constantly to be able to get two words of teaching out. Here I am now in a college class, instructing the one-hour weekly "labs" of the basic English level at LaGuardia Community College Writing Center, and these students cannot get past interrupting the class and having side-conversations with classmates long enough to just do the work they are asked to do! I understand, these students are mostly freshman, fresh out of high school, but I am becoming very frustrated with these kids who are not willing to grow up, so to speak.

I'm trying to be helpful and even tell them listen, if you don't want to do the work here and would rather read and write your assignments at home, that's fine. Just stop making so much noise by talking amongst yourselves and laughing and so disrupting other students who are trying to get real work done here! Honestly, this just discouraged me a tad bit today. I don't know; maybe my frustration comes from my most recent sleep-deprevation and other personal troubles I've had in the past 10 hours just today!

Teachers make mistakes, alot.

Today, as I was grading the students' "vocabulary" exercise, I realized that this one student has not bothered to look up the correct definition for half of the words and so gotten wrong self-made sentences and the other half of the words that he did look up the correct definition of, had very shallow sentences that doesn't show the meaning of the words. For some reason, this frustrated me a little, that all these other students did their work to the best of their ability and this one guy didn't even try!? Though I did not "mark" his whole sheet with angry red-pen remarks but I wrote in capitalized letters "WRONG DEFINITION" for the 3 words and just crossed out the other 3 sentences.

When I showed it to my lead-teacher, she suggested I "soften up" my remarks and perhaps write something a bit more encouraging for him. Suddenly, as she said this and as I took the paper back I felt awful about having judged the student like that. Maybe this student did actually make an effort of writing these sentences but he just simply did not understand the exact definitions of the vocabulary words. Haven't I made the same mistakes when I was in high school trying to make these sentences with vocabulary words? If I didn't understand the words completely, it never occur to me to just ask. For some reason, I thought I would somehow figure it out on my own without having to bother the teacher. I'm not saying this student has the same situation, but he could have any other complication.

And sure enough, after class, my lead teacher spoke with the advisor of the CUNY START program and found out that 3 students from our afternoon class have learning disabilities and the student whose paper I "harshly" marked the paper of, is one of them. I'm not exactly sure just yet what kind of disability he does have or if that was the cause of his poor performance of the assignment. Anyway, it really made me ashamed of myself to have judged so quickly. I mean me! The person who always hated when teachers did so with me or with other students!

I guess in the end of the day, even teachers make mistakes sometimes. No matter how conscious they may be of their practice.

Autobiographies: a mid-year Resolution for 2010!

I have decided to make a new mid-year resolution for 2010. Actually every year in January, I make a list of resolutions for that year that I sometimes follow. Interestingly, one of those resolutions always have to do with books: read more literature books, read ## this amount of books by the end of the year, and etc. Today, I've decided I should make a new resolutions mid-year before 2011, to read more autobiographies! When I was younger, I never really understood the point of autobiographies that much. I thought, why read a whole book about someone else's life when there are all these other amazing novels out there with great stories to read?! But when I used to say those things, I was still only into reading fiction novels. However, in the past 2-3 years, I have actually become more interested in reading non-fiction and this is all part of my "reading for pleasure" in addition to college-worth readings.

To put it briefly, my mid-year resolution, or just one of my goals for Fall 2010 is to read more autobiographies of great people who lived many years ago (Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Gandhi, Simone de Beauvoir, etc) and some living today (Obama, etc). I've just recently learned and truly believe that when you read the real life history of a great person, then reaching their level of greatness sometimes seems more achievable. So, I'm hoping to read, as much as I can really, for this term. So far, I finished reading "Teacher Man" from Frank McCourt, which was sort of an autobiography of his life as a child, student, and teacher. Now, I have just begun reading Richard Wright's "Black Boy", whom I only learned about from the Reading Writing course I co-teach at Hostos. So far, the first 70 pages are very engaging and I'm really enjoying myself here.

Now, I just want to see how much this new found-passion of mine will hold true in what I actually achieve.

Tired of co-teaching already, I think.

So basically, the other day the teacher for the Reading Writing course at Hostos (I'm not really sure what else to call her & I don't want to use her name) and I were discussing the first CATW lesson. She decided she would hand in a model essay of the test they took in class (that she wrote on her own), analyze it as a class, and have students continue on with the body paragraphs (using an anecdotal response & textual reference) with the "model" introduction.

Immediately, I felt like it is too early to give a model essay to the students since this test has barely been administered yet and instructors & tutors alike are trying to figure out just how to approach the test. Plus, she does not yet know enough about the test to know whether her model essay is actually "model". And of course, according to one of the supervisors at my WC who is by the way a certified scorer of the test, did not feel like there was sufficient integration of the article inside the essay.

However, my real problem with her approach to the lessons was why start with the "supporting details" of the essay when half of the students in this class do not yet know how to summarize? I would think that ok maybe you want to give them your "model" introduction and take it apart with the class and figure out what elements are used. But I would think to ask the students, ok now that you have seen the model, do one on your own. Isn't that the simple pedagogy any teacher would use? So what was the use of giving them a model if they won't be tested on their understanding of it? One can argue, well yes, they are going to reproduce their own "support" of the thesis of the model essay but...it just makes so much more sense to me to first teach them how to summarize. Then, teach them how to PULL OUT a "significant" idea from the text which most students seem to have trouble with. Then, work on putting that together inside the introduction. And only THEN work on learning how to use outside information to support the thesis. Am I totally off here?

All I'm thinking at this point is how last semester the idea of starting to teach after 2 semesters was insane to me and now, after a semester & internship in the summer, all I'm thinking is, I want to start teaching my own class already!

The "new" CUNY test/CAAW/CATW

Though I still have not exactly 'taught' at my Reading/Writing course at Hostos, I have started the "co-teaching" paperwork a.k.a. grading papers. So my co-teacher and I began with a basic assessment of writing using the new CUNY test that is replacing the original ACT test this coming October 2010. Though I did a bit of grading papers and giving feedback to writing assignments in my internship this past summer, I was not extensively given a stack of papers to read and make critical notes about their writing based on this new "CATW" test that has not yet been evaluated by many teachers or whatnot.

Basically, the new test requires students to read a small passage and then respond to it by giving a short summary of the reading and selecting one significant idea from the text and expanding the idea by using outside information like textual, film/tv, and personal experiences to support the thesis. There are 2 classes that I co-teach: one in the afternoons and one in the evenings. The ones in the afternoon seem to have mostly students who seem younger that just graduated from high school. On the other hand, the ones in the evening class are the "Adults" and all seem to come to class straight from their full-time jobs.

Though both groups of students are very dedicated to the class and are hard-working, sometimes the teacher and I feel like there is more energy going on in the evening and there is perhaps a bigger sacrifice taken by those students who manage to make it on time to class and really participate and do their parts. My purpose of introducing my students and the test was to better evaluate their responses to the writing assessment. All in all, there were 5 different kinds of essays that I saw from the students, from both classes:

1) summary of the whole reading with little or no response

• Students from both classes had this kind of essay, but most students from the evening class had this kind of essay
• They were able to fully summarize the text extensively and highlight the most important points with only 1-2 sentences of their own response to each point

2) brief summary in intro and mostly response to their own idea of the topic which was "Friendship" in this case

• Again, both classes had this kind of essay but most of the students who had this kind of essay was from the Afternoon class
• After briefly summarizing the text in the introduction, instead of taking out an idea from the passage they went into details about their own point of view of "friendship"

3) No summary and their own response of their idea of "friendship"

• There were only one or two people who came up with this, which were mostly from the afternoon class

4) No summary and no response to Friendship, miscomprehension of the whole thing (the reading & the directions of the writing)

• Not many people made this mistake, except one person who has a lot of trouble with English so that could've been a factor

5) Took 1 idea out and expanded

• Only 3 people out of the Afternoon class had this & 1 from the Evening class
• Of course, they still could have given more details and support for each of their paragraphs and developed their ideas more extensively, but they actually followed directions more accurately compared to other students in the class

My evaluation is that those students who just graduated from high school and had to pass the English Regents are more used to reading passages and responding to the text critically and/or just responding to the whole idea. Also, they are able to better summarize the text in a more brief manner. There is still a lot of improvement that can be made to both classes' writings but I feel like there are students from the Evening class who have not written for years and are now asked to read and write a response,which can be a very difficult task. It is also interesting to see how some students make the same errors and yet each one stay true to their identity and way of writing.

This is going to be one hell of a semester.

Beginning to Fall

This Fall 2010 came without a warning, I feel. One minute I was working on my summer internship portfolio, the next I was reading an e-reserve and already working on a writing assignment. It has already technically been 3 weeks since school started, and I am still in my Beach/Summer-y mood.

I would like to say though I am quiet excited about this semester. For the first time in my life, what I am learning in my classes at college are directly aligned with my jobs! First, I'm taking Writing Center Theory and Practice and as always I work at the LaGCC writing center! I'm also taking Teaching Writing and Literature and I am co-teaching a Basic Reading/Writing course at Hostos Community College, part of the CUNY Start program.

So yes, I basically will have a very busy semester of school/work 5 days a week and with every minute that I have "free" I have to become prepared for my classes, whether I'm teaching it or taking it. However, this is all good news: to have my experiences of reading, writing, teaching, and learning all in one place this semester!

A Summer of Teaching, Reading, Writing and more..

I would like to start my Fall 2010 Language & Literacy blog with an overview of my summer 2010 because I believe that everything I am today is because of my past, literally.

This summer, for the month of June and July, I continued working at the Writing Center at LaGuardia Community College, where I've been working for about three years now. For the summer term, I was given a lab to instruct twice a week, one hour a day. As always, I wastutoring college-level students in writing while along with the rest of the staff and supervisors trying to figure out the new CUNY test "CAAW" that would be starting up in October 2010. This was the second time I've heard of this new test that would be getting rid of the ACT test and requiring new applicants to CUNY colleges to take the CAAW written exam where students are given 90 minutes to read a small passage and respond to it. During the summer, as a team, tutors and supervisors were trying to figure out how to develop a curriculum and pedagogy oftutoring and helping students with the test in the one-hour sessions given to them in the writing center. Little did I know, that I would be much involved with the new test in the near future.

In July, I began my internship at LaGuardia Community College, team-teaching a textualized GED course for the following 2 months (July & August). I absolutely loved my experience though I had to work a lot: observing & contributing in classes, making my 3 lesson plans andteaching, tutoring the students before class started, and keeping up with a blog every week. In addition, since this internship was basically considered as graduate work, I had to write two 15 page essays on my experiences and research along with preparing an overall portfolio of everything.

My reading journey was either the texts that were required of the students in the GED class to read like small newspaper articles and short texts that all revolved around the theme of career exploration in NYC, or my own summer "reading for pleasure". I tried to keep up with language and literacy along with my other love: literature. So I read Mike Rose's "Mind At Work", "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt, a Farsi book called "Woman" by Ali Shariati (a philosophical/Islamic view of feminism that is), and Simone de Beauvoir's second volume of "the Second Sex". As you can see, I tried to keep a nice variety going! I did notread as much as I would have loved to, though I love that I always had something to read in hand...

Unlike last summer when I attempted to write a short novel, this time around I stuck to my own ascetic and wrote poetry whenever it came to me, wrote in my journal pages of worthy or worthless memories and thoughts, and even a piece of fiction that was one of those things thatjust had to be written... In addition, for the month of July and August, once a week, as an assignment or for my own enjoyment, I wrote on my LaGCC Internship Blog .

When it comes to language, it is important to also admit that this summer I began a freelance job of interpretation in the medical field for an institute called CP Language. I'm not sure what the CP stands for now. Each assignment they gave me took about 2 hours that paid quiet well, so I did it without asking, though I'm still waiting on a check from assignments I did back in July...

As a whole, I must say this was one of my best summers in NYC. I actually made the trip to the beach several times and discovered the most beautiful one in Far Rockaway. I also took mini vacations with my family and had my share of "summer romance"! It was a hot summer, but one that I learned so much as a student and teacher and a reader and writer! Although as soon as I finished my internship and supposedly handed in my portfolio, I had to attend classes and start another semester, at least this summer, I never got bored!

Assignment #3

Here is the link to my second research paper that I did on Mike Rose's Lives on the Boundary:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZg2EnfEYHlcZGZremo1OTVfMmdmbXNremN6&hl=en

My Comments to Course Blog (6-10)

Comment 6: (Response to "This is Alabama; We Speak English" April 28, 2010)

This is absolutely ridiculous! I just saw the video. How can he really expect to get voted after this? I mean beside what Charlene is saying about other smaller countries establishing bilingualism as a necessity for all citizens, does this governor not understand the fact that the mere foundation of this country is based on multilingualism and multiculturalism? Who does he think he is anyway? Has he really done his research? Does he understand how much is really going to be gained by this new policy that he's proposing and how much will be lost? The article states that this correlates with the Republican way of thinking, but in my opinion, it only correlates with ignorance. His whole advertisement motto is "common sense" but it's very ironic how he's the one who is NOT making sense by making such an outrageous suggestion.

Firstly, just by reading the American history and seeing what it entails, he would begin to understand just how wrong he is. Secondly, why would it even be bothered by him that there are non-English speaking driving legally in his state. In this way, he's only going to be adding to crimes by giving the license to those who are not capable of taking the English licensing exams to drive without one, illegally. Just think about how much it would increase the crime rates!

Comment 7: (Response to ""Listening to (And Saving) the World's Languages" from the NYT" April 29, 2010)

"A lot of people feel that their regional dialects make them sound not-so-smart, and outsiders sometimes reinforce this sentiment."

I can really relate to what Nancy is saying here about how people are sometimes afraid to keep their regional dialects because they are afraid of standing out. Let me be honest and say that I, too used to be from this group. Before coming to America, in Iran, I was born in Northern Iran in a small town named "Gorgan" and in there the pronunciations and some idiomatic expressions are very different from the 'standard, Tehrani' accent. It has always been referred to as the "northern accent" somewhat similar to people perception of the 'southern accent' in America.

It was not and it is still not considered an official way of speaking and if someone speaks with that accent in say, the capital Tehran, people usually have the assumption that they are not very well educated and are teased and mocked. This is why when I was in Iran, I always disliked my parents' accents and my sister and I tried really hard to blend in with Tehrani's and act as if we are born there and we have nothing to do with where we are really from.

It is only when I came to New York and to City College and learned that having a distinct background and being from a part of a country that has such a rich culture that has its own accent, is actually a GOOD thing and I came to love where I am from and began to embrace it.

As for Alex's question, I agree with Stacy-Ann that it is really up to the parents and the first generations who carry their cultures and histories to decide whether a language must die or not. For example in my case, I am now openly proud of where I am from and I will definitely pass this on to the 'next generation'. If I was still in denial of i though, then I would be one less person carrying on our heritage to the future...

Comment 8: (Response to "the Intelligence of their mistakes" April 29, 2010)

I agree that it is very important for us, as teachers/readers of the papers of students to seek out their errors and try to understand what they did not understand and whether this was just a mistake on their part (as we learned to distinguish the difference between the two in SLA class). I've had many students in the writing center (in LAGCC) where I work that have some errors in their writing and not grammar but the sentences in the paragraphs just do not relate. As soon as I ask the students what they meant here or what their focus is, I realize that they just did not understand the assignment very well to be able to elaborate any further on the topic.

Likewise, this is true about grammar as well. it may not be very productive to ONLY teach grammar to students as they do in some of these remedial classes as Mike Rose described. They should be learning the same material that are taught in all other writing classes but just given more attention to at times especially to their errors. Thank you Jane for bringing my attention to this quote.

Comment 9: (Response to "Consortium for Worker Education Class Visit" May 5, 2010)

I also really enjoyed the trip to the Consortium for Worker's Education. Thank you Joe McDermott and Eric Shtob for your genuine welcome and the lecture from which I learned a lot! A lot of people do NOT know about the consortium though, which is very unfortunate. I already have about 5 people in mind to let them know about this place to take the courses. I wonder, if many companies actually let their employees know about this opportunity or let me rephrase: how does the word get out to companies that there are such opportunities?!

And just to comment on what Tonisha said, it's just like Mike Rose's "Live on the Boundary" isn't it? That those who do need the real help are not funded enough, like the remedial level writers who are given the least attention by the educational system. Or the writing center that was not paid any interest or attention to and in consideration of cutting budgets for that department.

Unfortunately, it is very uncommon to have people like Joe or Eric to put their time and effort on those who are in need of the help.

Comment 10: (Response to "Adult Learners of Language & Literacy Wrap-up" May 10, 2010)

I also want to congradulate Wynne, Lashallah, and Megan on graduating, we'll miss you!!

As my first semester at the MA L&L program, I really appreciated this class. The trip to CWE, presentation by Megan, and Ruben Rangel's Freire workshop ( I wasn't there for Wynne's presentation unfortunately) were all one of a kind experiences for me. I, too, will have to go back to Freire for a better understanding of the material. The Preparing for Success book was a great read due to its practical lesson plans and worsheets. Mike Rose's "Lives on the Boundary" was also my favorite book--so much that I seem to be recommending it to everyone to read it. My summer reading list, I already know, will be several of his books.

I can't believe a whole semester ended already, thank you everybody for being such great students and classmates. I learned so much and was inspired from you all, thank you once again.

See you all tonight!

Assignment #2

Here's the link to my google doc of summary of basic writing essay:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZg2EnfEYHlcZGZremo1OTVfMXQzOHp3d2Zr&hl=en

My Comments to Course Blog (1-5)

Comment 1: (Response to "Teacher Tenure Based on Test Scores" February 18, 2010)

Though this is in all honesty a very interesting program for high school students to graduate earlier and with an associate degree as well, I don't really think it solves the problem of "High School Dropouts". If anything, as Humaira and Alex said, it adds more to that problem because in this way, these exceptional students with exceptional test scores will be given more attention to in a way to expedite their graduation process while the students with real problems and with no true value for education in the first place in high school, are just left behind as usual. As Barbara mentioned in class, which teenager doesn't really hate high school? I mean if not hate, but it is definitely not the place of their choice to begin with. Additionally, at that age, though it really depends on their backgrounds, they don't really understand the value of education. So what is my solution to this problem????? The hiring of highly-educated, motivated, and caring tutors!!!

Though many people may not really comprehend the importance of the correct way of tutoring, it needs to be brought back into attention somehow. I know tutors are available already in high schools and that for free as well, but how do we really know how educated and qualified these tutors really are? A tutor can play a very crucial role in a student's academic and personal life! Unlike most teachers, tutors have the chance to develop a personal relationship with the students and be their mentor academically of course, along with other things in life, especially in a teenager's life. These tutors could be college students or college graduates even... experienced enough about the "life outside of high school" but at the same time, young enough to understand where these troubled students are really coming from.

Comment 2: (Response to "DailyNews: MTA bigwigs may cut free passes for students to ride subway and busses" March 1, 2010)

Wow this is outrageous!

"We had to cut the budgets of all agencies and entities and still wind up ... short of our goal," Paterson said. "New York is running out of money." Why is it that the first place they look to cut the budget is taking away from the very poor who's kids get free metro cards? After all, it is the students coming from lower-income families who will mostly be affected by this and eventually quit coming to school. Even the really good students who actually cared about and valued education at one point will have to drop out of school if they come from a low-income family.

Comment 3: (Response to "Braille Literacy: Open Forum" March 27, 2010)

Thank you again, Megan for your amazing presentation. I learned so much about Braille literacy now. I actually did my research paper on Braille Literacy and as I reread the articles you gave us I realized just how easily people can forget that Braille to you is what print is to us. As Ray Weiss's article was mentioning,

"What happens when the computer dies for people who can see? You go back to pencil and paper. When the computer goes out for us, it's Braille."

If Braille is constantly compared to print, then it will be appreciated more and not as easily rejected.

Comment 4: (Response to "Preparing for Success" April 7, 2010)

Quote:
"Additionally, ESL instructors need to be aware of the diverse issues that learners are likely to encounter in the workplace. For example, an ESL class that is serving highly educated refugees and immigrants will need a different focus from one that is serving agricultural workers with limited education in their country of origin..." -pg. 31

Response:
The quote went on to explain how 'highly educated' learners may be interested in getting credentials verified etc and the ones with agricultural backgrounds may need information about getting GED etc. This can be beneficial in many ways I think. Firstly, of course if the classroom is going to be useful to immigrants then this must be one of the best ways. After all, where else can they get these types of information? Also, this can stimulate conversation by learners amongst each other so in this way they can also find friendship with each other and 'get together' outside of classes and in this way practice their English. Furthermore, this is "Freirian" approach because as Mr. Ruben Rangel pointed out to us in the workshop, teachers must first get to KNOW their students before being able to teach them. In this way, the teachers learn a new aspect about their students and it motivates other types of discussions in class relating to peoples' needs.

Comment 5: (Response to "Mike Rose, Marilyn Sternglass and Jane: The Need for Teaching Critical Literacy" April 23, 2010)

This is a very crucial point that Megan is making here, I think, about her sister who is willing to implement the curriculum, because very few teachers are genuinely committed to doing such a thing. As we all know, Humaira is not one of those people, and she takes matters into her own hands to do with the students what SHE thinks will benefit them more. It is also true about the tracking of students in High School. i was in the 'normal' classes (not honors) and it was so obvious that the teachers and administrators just did not care too much about challenging the students in these levels too much.

Actually, guidance counselors would bluntly suggest the seniors in the 'non-honors' classes to just apply to junior and community colleges. The students, defeated, thinking that if they try out 4-year colleges they will just not be successful, would listen to them. In fact, I witnessed a couple of my high school friends who were in the same classes as I were who went to community colleges after graduating and then after taking a couple of classes, they just dropped out. Some were able to transfer to 4 year colleges afterwards, but a lot just lost interest. They couldn't convince ME to aim low for myself because I come from a family that really values education and not going to college just wasn't an option. I'm not saying that I didn't even want to go, but I was definitely not as inspired about learning back then as I am today.

In 11th grade though, I was very fortunate to have an English teacher who truly cared for her students in ALL levels ( she taught honors as well) and she always encouraged us to write as much as possible and urged us to think critically about the materials that we read. Even today, whenever I visit her, she tells me of her always changing curriculum, and how she implements it as much as possible according to the students' interests, abilities, and society and what is happening currently in the United States and the world.

Assignment #1

Here's the link to my first research paper that I did on Braille Literacy for this class (google doc):

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZg2EnfEYHlcZGZremo1OTVfMGhoeDU0NHM3&hl=en